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Subject: Dietitians of the Week

Check our Facebook page every weekday for our RD of the Day, as we put a much-deserved spotlight on a dietitian who's either making headlines or writing them and delivering their expertise through the media. Here are this week's featured RDs.

Fruits, veggies, nuts, eggs, and more appear on the Arizona-based nutrition consultant/blogger's list, as does something most don't consider "food" — water.

"Dehydration causes that sluggish feeling and is easily cured with a glass of cold water," Dr. Jenn says. "For prevention, try taking a large 1- to 2-quart container of ice water to work, and sip on it throughout the day. Rehydrate after workouts and first thing in the morning with at least 16 ounces of water."

For these great suggestions to keep energized with healthy snacks during the day, Jenn was Monday's RD of the Day.

Wednesday's RD of the Day knows that March is not only for celebrating nutrition but it's also National Kidney Month. This TV spot and article via FOX31 discusses the $70,000 grant this dietitian was awarded by the National Kidney Foundation to study bone disease in infants with chronic kidney disease.

With the grant, Abbey Eldridge, a pediatric renal dietitian at Children's Hospital Colorado, wants to develop best practice guidelines for treatment, as there are none currently.

The video piece shows how this important work affects kids like 4 year-old Samantha Moreno, who was diagnosed with kidney failure and bone disease after her mother noticed her bowed legs and inability to run or jump. The kidney disease was taking calcium from her bones and deforming them. After a year of dialysis, Samantha received a kidney transplant in November. Since then, her legs have straightened.

Abbey's hypothesis is that if children are treated sooner, they could achieve greater height.

“You might have a child who is 14, and they actually have the height of an 8-year-old," Abbey explains in the video. "So we are hoping if we catch it sooner, then we can help promote that growth earlier, and they will actually achieve more of an adult type height,” Eldridge said.

Renal dietitians often do their work without a lot of fanfare but they clearly have impact on the lives of their patients. For the great work and dedication to kids that led to this impressive grant award, and for the research she and her colleague, Dr. Jens Goebel, do to help kids in the future, Abbey was our Wednesday RD of the Day.

The phenomenon in question is the depletion of willpower, with research suggesting that willpower may actually be a finite resource, rather than something over which you always have complete control.

“New research suggests that we can potentially strengthen our willpower over time, kind of like strengthening a muscle,” explains Boston-based registered dietitian Matt Priven. “But in practice, I find that willpower is a challenge, because people tend to use up their reserve. They avoid the pizza, but later in the day they don’t have the strength to avoid the bag of chips.”

Matt then provides six solid tips for circumventing your willpower. We won;t give them all away here, but he gets pretty profound when discussing one of his tips: Get rid of barriers to success.

"You wouldn't start training for a marathon without running shoes,” Priven says. "Don’t start a healthy eating plan without the right tools." That may mean stocking up on physical tools needed to make good meals; buying healthy kitchen staples, such as olive oil and herbs; or brushing up on your cooking techniques. Knock down as many obstacles as possible."

For identifying depleting willpower as a barrier to healthy eating, and providing motivational solutions to fighting back, Matt was Thursday's RD of the Day.

Monica Nagele, RD, Purdue Extension - Montgomery County Extension Educator and County Extension Director, Health and Human Science, discusses how children are naturally intuitive eaters, citing the example of how a baby naturally eats until it's full, then pushes away when finished. Adults, however, are more prone to eat past that point and consume more than is necessary.

"To help your children get back to intuitive eating or to never stop, it is important to make sure you offer plenty of options at dinner," Monica suggests. "Make several sides, including one you know they will eat and one that maybe you aren't sure."

She also recommends putting all items on the table at once and treat them as equal, including foods one would consider "less important".

"By treating it all equal children will never know that food is something they crave and desire because they aren't supposed to have it," she says.

Monica also reminds parents and caregivers not to stress about kids eating the same foods every day, but again offer plenty of other options on the table. They will eventually tire of eating the same thing over and over and eat something new.

For focusing on keeping children the intuitive eaters they are born as, and making this a stepping stone to a lifetime of good eating habits, Monica is our RD of the Day.

This is an online snapshot of a newsletter created by the owner of todays_dietitian (Great Valley Publishing Company, 3801 Schuylkill Road, 19475 Spring City, United States) and sent via on 2017-03-17. Report abuse